The present invention relates to a seat pad for use on a seat, and particularly to a seat pad to be mounted on a juvenile seat such as a high chair. More particularly, the present invention relates to a seat pad that is reversible so that it can be mounted on a juvenile seat in either a first position where its front face is visible or a reversed second position where its back face is visible.
It is common to place a pad on a seat to provide comfort to an occupant of the seat. Seat pads are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,806,696; 5,005,903; 4,773,702; and 4,457,032, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein.
According to the present invention, a seat unit includes a seat and a reversible seat pad to be mounted on the seat in either a first position or a reversed second position The seat unit also includes a tether strap having a fixed end coupled to the reversible seat pad and a free end that is movable so that it can be coupled to the seat to tether the reversible seat pad to the seat whether the pad is in its first or second position on the seat. The reversible seat pad is formed to include a strap passage slot and the free end of the tether strap is adapted to be passed by a user back and forth through the strap passage slot during reversal of the seat pad so that the user can couple the tether strap to the seat whether the pad is in its first or second position on the seat.
In preferred embodiments, the seat unit includes four tether straps that are used to tether a middle portion of the reversible seat pad to the seat regardless of the position of the reversible seat pad on the seat. The reversible seat pad includes a rear face that contacts the seat when the seat pad is moved to assume its first position and a front face that contacts the seat when the seat pad is moved to assume its second position. Because of the reversible character of the seat pad, an occupant of the seat will sit on the front face when the seat pad is in its first position and the rear face when the seat pad is in its second position.
The reversible seat pad is formed to include two strap passage slots and these slots are arranged to lie in spaced-apart relation to one another along a fold line between a pad back and pad bottom included in the reversible seat pad. The fixed ends of a first pair of tether straps are coupled to the reversible seat pad along edges defining the first strap passage slot and the fixed ends of a second pair of tether straps are coupled to the reversible seat pad along edges defining the second strap passage slot.
The seat is formed to include two tether slots and these tether slots are arranged to lie in spaced-apart relation to one another along a junction line between the back and bottom of the seat. The first tether slot aligns with the first strap passage slot whenever the reversible seat pad is placed on the seat so that a user can pass the free ends of the first pair of tether straps through the first tether slot and couple those free ends to a first tether mount provided on the rearward side of the seat. Also, the second tether slot aligns with the second strap passage whenever the reversible seat pad is placed on the seat so that a user can pass the free ends of the second pair of tether straps through the second tether slot and couple those free ends to a second tether mount provided on the rearward side of the seat.
While the four tether straps serve to tether a "middle" portion of the reversible seat pad to the seat regardless of whether the seat pad is placed in its first position or reversed second position on the seat, the reversible seat pad is also formed to include holes which receive pad mounts coupled to the seat to retain the pad back and pad bottom on the seat whether the seat pad has been placed in its first position or reversed second position on the seat. Three top pad mounts are coupled to the rearward face of the seat near a top edge of the seat back and arranged to extend into three mount-receiver holes formed in an upper portion of the seat pad that has been wrapped over the top edge of the seat back. Several bottom pad mounts are coupled to the rearward face of the seat near a leading edge of the seat bottom and arranged to extend into mount-receiver holes formed in a lower portion of the seat pad that has been wrapped under the leading edge of the seat bottom.
Additional features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.